Jeff Berlin (born January 17, 1953) is an American jazz, jazz fusion and progressive rock electric bass player.
Jeff Berlin's bass playing is somewhat similar to that of Jaco Pastorius, though Berlin plays a fretted bass and has stated his distaste for Jaco imitators.
Jeff Berlin was born to parents who were both musically inclined (his father an opera singer and his mother a pianist). As a child he was considered a prodigy on the violin, but switched to bass guitar at 14 years old. His early bass training included time at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Since the 1970s, Jeff Berlin's career has been primarily as a sideman to more well-known musicians, but he has also released several solo albums. He played for some years with Bill Bruford and turned down an offer to join Van Halen.
Berlin is well known as a particularly outspoken advocate of (formal) music education. He was a founding member of the Bass Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and later founded the Players School of Music in Clearwater, Florida. Among his notable pupils are bass guitarists David Hughes and Christopher Maloney. Additionally, he regularly writes articles and columns for Bass Player Magazine.
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 5.9 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.
Frank Gambale (born 22 December 1958) is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released eleven studio albums over a period of more than two decades, and is renowned for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.
Gambale graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, with Student of the Year honors. He also taught there from 1984 to 1986. After graduation, he played the jazz club circuit with his own band and in 1985 released his first studio album, Brave New Guitar, through Legato Records (owned by Mark Varney, brother of Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney) in what was to be a three-album contract. In that same year, he toured with Jean-Luc Ponty and shortly afterwards began a six-year stint with the Chick Corea Elektric Band in 1987. During his time with the latter, he has participated in five albums and shared a Grammy Award (with two nominations).
In the 1980s, he released two studio albums and a live album. In 1988, he released Monster Licks & Speed Picking, the first of many instructional videos. An endorsement deal with Ibanez guitars resulted in the 1987 debut of the Frank Gambale Model (FGM) signature series, modeled after the Ibanez S. Yamaha also manufactured a signature guitar after he left Ibanez later in the 1990s. He signed with Victor Entertainment in 1989 as part of a five-album agreement, and released Thunder from Down Under the following year.
Vincent Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14. He is notable for his technical skill and his musical versatility, having played with many artists from a wide variety of genres.
After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, Colaiuta had his first big break as a member of the Christopher Morris Band in 1976-1977. Playing and recording with the Christopher Morris Band (MCA 2282) in 1977, Colaiuta relocated with the band to Los Angeles. After leaving the Christopher Morris Band, he made a mediocre living playing with lounge bands. His next break came in April 1978 at the age of 22, when Colaiuta auditioned for Frank Zappa, an audition that involved performing the notoriously difficult piece entitled "The Black Page". The audition was successful and Colaiuta went on to work with Zappa as his principal drummer for studio and live performances. He played on the successful Zappa albums Tinsel Town Rebellion, Joe's Garage, and Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar. Joe's Garage was named one of the top-25 drumming performances of all time in a 1993 Modern Drummer article.
Kazumi Watanabe (渡辺香津美) is a jazz and jazz fusion guitarist, from Tokyo, Japan. He was born on October 14, 1953
Kazumi learned to play guitar from Sadanori Nakamure, one of Japan's grandmaster guitarists. Kazumi released his first recording in 1971, and quickly became a promising guitarist in his own right. In 1979, he formed an all-star band with some of Japan's leading studio musicians, and recorded the album Kylyn, which is considered a masterpiece in fusion music.
During the eighties Watanabe released a considerable number of jazz-rock albums. To Chi Ka (1980), with its funk influences and bright sound, is probably the most famous early title. Some latter albums, such as Mobo Club (1983) and Mobo Splash (1985) display more experimental tendencies. But the most famous of all is Spice of Life (1987) which is done in a strongly melodic style. A DVD has been issued from the tour in which the music was played with drummer Bill Bruford and bassist Jeff Berlin (who also play on the studio record). In the 1990s Kazumi assembled an all-Japanese line-up called Resonance Vox (Vagabonde Suzuki on bass, Rikiya Higahihara on drums, Tomohiro Yahiro on percussion). This band has released several adventurous fusion albums.